Braveheart battle cry is now but a whisper

It may have struck a chord in 1995, but the Mel Gibson film is looking increasingly xenophobic and out of step, write Hugo Rifkind and Kenny Farquharson

It is 10 years since we sat in our cinemas, watching a man with hair like a 1980s footballer roar across a field to decapitate English people with a sword, an axe and — at one point if you look carefully enough — an antler. Ten years since we stepped outside that cinema to find the Scottish National party waiting with clipboards and placards, urging us, electorally speaking, to follow this warrior’s example. Ten years since tourist numbers to Scotland rocketed, especially from America. Ten years since blue faces started appearing at football and rugby matches. Ten years, for most of us, since we first caught sight of Mel Gibson’s bottom.

Braveheart was not just a film, it was a cultural and political phenomenon grossing £120m at the box office worldwide. For some the raw power of the William Wallace story as depicted on the big screen was too much. At one